it forces members of congress and president obama to spend the last few days of 2012 on the job. we want to bring in cnn chief white house correspondent, jessica yelen, we all know they would rather celebrate new year's eve elsewhere. how did they get here? >> reporter: it is such a good question, you know, candy, this grid lock in washington creates the eye-rolling. but the fundamental question goes to the essential differences between the two parties about the role of government, should it be bigger or smaller? about whether we want lower taxes or more of a social safety net. so while we have seen the principles, the president, speaker boehner, and now senator mcconnell and reid trying to get involved in stages in the last few weeks, it has always broken down because they fundamentally disagree about the big ideas over the core of this debate. they're fighting between the two parties. and this could get resolved in a matter of days or weeks. but the big difference, the issues could really take months to work out. >> can it be resolved in the matter of few enough days that they